Symbolism In E. M Forster's The Other Side Of The Hedge

E.M Forster in his short story “The Other Side of The Hedge” explores the main character array of metaphors within the story. The symbolism in this story has several interpretations and meaning for within the story. We notice the narrator, despite his deep fatigue physically and mentally perceiver to achieve an unknown goal. The narrator says “I slid off the milestone into the road, and lay their prostate, with the face to the great parched hedge, praying that a might give up.” (47) This is showing us that his state of mind of constant monotony life has altered a change. E.M Forster uses symbolism and settings to show us a transition of the main character from his detached world to an alluring life around him.

The story opens with the narrator on a dusty road surrounded by “brown crackling hedges” on both sides. On the road, the narrator has an encounter with Miss Eliza Dimbleby, encouraging him to persevere in his walk after he decided to take a break. The Narrator notices from the other walkers the road covered with “strewn with the things we all had dropped; and white dust

As the narrator collapses, in the road on his morbid state he sees a glint of light through the tangle of boughs and dead leaves. He decides to force his way through stating to himself “I would come back in a minute”. (48) But usually curiosity takes over and in that instant, he starts to wonder what is on the other side. Generally, people who are on the long dusty road never admit that there is another side to the hedge. To achieve a goal, there is always some sort of pain. As the narrator attempts going through the hedge his face was getting scratched and his possessions he was carrying were scraped away. On the other with no possessions and his clothes all torn up the narrator falls into a moat of cold water. Perhaps, it is a sense of birth because falling in the moat of water the narrator began to cry for